


Team Mom

by Katybug1992



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Team Bonding, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:34:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23166301
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katybug1992/pseuds/Katybug1992
Summary: Jaden was not Team Mom. He wasn’t and Dunner could go fuck himself.OR Times Jaden was definitely Team Mom in no chronological order.OR Four of many times that Jaden was Team Mom and one of the few times he let his team take care of him.
Relationships: Jaden Schwartz & Team, background Jaden Schwartz/Patrick Kane, background Joel Edmundson/Colton Parayko, background Robert Thomas/Matthew Tkachuk
Kudos: 34





	Team Mom

1.

Jaden grumbled as he got in his car and headed to The Wheelhouse. Robby had been dumb enough to let Dunner convince him to go out with a couple of them and then they proceeded to get drunk and his phone died and he was definitely missing curfew at Walt’s. It really wasn’t Robby’s fault, which is the only reason Jaden was doing this.

As he pulled onto the highway he pulled up Keith’s number.

“Hey,” Jaden greeted when the older man answered the phone, “Robby’s phone is dead and he’s with a bunch of idiots. I’m on my way to get him but I wanted to give you a head’s up.”

“Is Robby drunk?” Keith responded.

“No, but he didn’t want to use Dunner’s phone to order a Lyft and he didn’t want to call you because he doesn’t want you to be disappointed.” Jaden replied, “I’m getting him now. Do you want me to bring him to you or do you want me to bring to mine?”

“You can bring him here. If you take him to yours, he’s gonna think I’m disappointed in him.”

“Okay. I’ll see you a little bit.”

When he pulled up outside, he threw on the Hazards and got out of the car. He quickly made his way through the bar and grinned at the relieved look he got from Robby. He quickly rounded up his teammates, wondered briefly how they would fit into his car, and ushered them outside. He told Robby to take the front seat and managed to get Dunner, Sammy, Mac, Sanny, and Jordie situated in the backseat (and the floor of the backend). 

The drive to Walt’s was uneventful until someone cut him off and he flung his arm across Robby as he slammed on the brakes.

“Did you just Mom-Arm Robby?” Dunner asked from the backseat, because he was oblivious to everything else for the past fifteen minutes but of course he saw that.

“No.” Jaden replied, fixing his gaze on the road and glaring at the car in front of him.

“I think you did.” Sammy grinned, because if Dunner was Thing One then he was Thing Two and they lived to create mischief together.

“Well, I didn’t,” Jaden replied, shooting a side glare at Robby - who was making a truly valiant effort not to laugh or smile but was ultimately failing.

“You totally did.” Dunner grinned and if Jaden came to a harder stop in the Tkachuk’s driveway than he needed to, that was for him to know.

“Go on.” Jaden prodded gently, “He knows why you’re late.”

Robby grinned and thanked him before getting out of the car and leaving the others to Jaden’s mercy.

2.

It was an eerie feeling as they entered the hotel. Petro had brought his stuff inside, had a word with Steener, O’Ry, and Schwartzy before grabbing a cab and heading to the hospital.

“He’s going to call when he gets there.” Steener addressed the team, gathered in the lobby. None of them were eager to get to their rooms or really be apart right now. 

Jaden immediately zeroed in on Dunner, who had moved a little further away from everyone, pale and shaking a little. Schenner gave him a little push toward Dunner and said that he would go grab Jaden a coffee

“Hey,” he greeted softly, sitting down next to Dunner.

“Hey,” Dunner whispered, staring blankly at the floor.

“You did good, kid.” Jaden pulled Dunner over to him, wrapping his arms around him, “You did good.”

Vince clung tightly to Jaden, who tightened his grip on the younger man, “I got you.”

Steener glanced over at them, he would check on Jaden later. He would have since Jaden wasn’t going to slow down until he had checked on the younger guys and ensured that they were as okay as possible.

Schenner approached just to set the coffee he had gotten for Jaden off on the end table and then made a hasty retreat.

Everyone’s moods definitely lifted some when Petro FaceTimed them all with J-Bo. Dunner stayed tucked under Jaden’s arm the whole time, only moving little when Steener ended the call - but it was purely to pull Sammy and Colton into the huddle, laughing a little as Jaden complained about being underneath three hockey players. He then yelped after making a comment about Jaden being used to being on the bottom, Jaden informing him that just because it had been a hard night didn’t give him the excuse to remind Jaden that he was maybe, kind of, in an actual relationship with Patrick Kane.

Jaden didn’t let his guard down until the kids were in their rooms.

“You okay, kid?” Steener was finally able to approach him.

“I think so.” Jaden replied.

“I’m here, you know that right?”

“I know.” Jaden replied, hugging the veteran, “Thank you.”

3.

Robby almost made it to the front door when Keith stopped him.

“Where are you going, Robby?” he asked, an amused look on his face as he leaned against the banister, his voice getting the attention of Team Pacific (in the parlor to the left of the front door) and Team Atlantic (in the living room to the right of the front door).

“Dunner and Sammy’s.” he replied, hoping he was convincing and that Keith didn’t know that they were currently on an airplane.

“Try again.” Keith grinned.

Robby let out a sigh, “Team Central is at Schwartzy’s because he and Kane are kind of a thing and he’s probably the only person in the Lou who would be able to stop Kane from antagonizing Petro and Pear. And, like, all he has to do to get Petro and Pear to do something is give them this look. And I told Schwarty that I would come by to help him with dinner -”

“And he told me to keep you here.”

“Traitor.”

“Chief also asked me to keep you away. Jaden’s going to have a hard enough time keeping Kane and Perry in line. He doesn’t need you antagonizing anyone.”

“I don’t antagonize.”

“Don’t sound so offended. Matthew and Brady have both rubbed off on you a little.”

“I don’t antagonize.”

“Go mingle.”

“Borts antagonizes. Schenner antagonizes. I’m not allowed to antagonize.”

“Go.” Walt laughed.

“I’m an angel.” Rob stuck his tongue out at Walt, getting a laugh, before walking into the parlor and draping himself across Matthew’s lap and pouting.

“I know you are.” Matthew grinned, pressing a kiss to Robby’s temple and chuckling as his boyfriend’s pout.

Gio huffed out a laugh as Matthew attention looked onto the younger boy, completely enthralled in the way he only ever saw when Robby was involved.

Team Central arrived at Jaden’s, the Blues players having graciously volunteered to give others rides to Jaden’s and back to the hotel that night, and could clearly hear him yelling at someone through the door.

“You should know better! You’re not rookies anymore!” Jaden was saying, Binner wincing a little as he recalled the first time he had been on the receiving end of that tone, “You had better hope that nothing shows up on Social Media.”

They could faintly hear some voices, Pear groaning at the definite French accent that was barely audible.

“He was your rookie.” Petro grinned over at David, who glared at him in response.

“If he’s there, then Dunner’s there and Dunner is your responsibility.” David fired back.

“No. Go upstairs. I’ll bring your dinner up when it gets here.” Jaden’s voice cut off any arguments.

When it was silent for a minute, Petro sighed, “It should be safe to go in now.”

“You’re scared of Jaden Schwartz?” Josi asked, expression judgemental.

“You would be, too.” Patrick replied, having been on the receiving end of that tone a couple times in the short amount of time they had been together.

Petro and Pear rock, paper, scissored to decide which of them would be the first in the door and David pumped his fist in the air when he won.

“Maybe we should sacrifice Kane.” Petro muttered before opening the door and walking inside, painting a bright smile on his face, “Hey, Jay. How was your trip?”

“Your rookies decided to get drunk on an airplane because they were bored!” Jaden spun on both Petro and Pear, both smart enough not to bring up that Sammy and Dunner were not rookies anymore.

“Jay, calm -” Patrick took a step toward his boyfriend but immediately paused when Jaden’s eyes flashed, “You know what? I’m just gonna run upstairs and plug my phone in.”

“Schwartzy,” Petro stepped into his space and put his hands on his shoulders, “breathe.”

“Breathe.” Jaden repeated after him, glaring but taking a couple deep breaths.

“Okay, you good?” Petro gave him a calculating look, “One to Ten?”

“Five.” Jaden replied, “I can’t believe they would be so stupid!”

“I didn’t see either of their cars, so at least they weren’t dumb enough to drive.”

“I ordered them the crappy vegan pizza.”

“You always have been a little petty.”

“I feel bad about it. I already yelled at them. I think Dunner may have peed a little.”

“He should know better, you were right. I’m sure it won’t happen again.”

“You scared any ideas of a repeat performance out of their heads, I think.” Pear ruffled Jaden’s hair and walked passed him, opening up the refrigerator to pull out the beer he had dropped off earlier that day and setting it down next to the other types of alcohol O’Ry had brought by as well, “Just like you scared them out of Binner last year.”

“You bring food or just booze?” Binner grinned, ignoring Pear’s comment. He hadn’t been that drunk but he had broken curfew….he hadn’t broken curfew since then.

“Not that that would be terrible.” Seguin replied.

“It’s on it’s way,” Jaden stepped away, moving to grab plates, setting them on the counter and handing silverware over to Binner, “You’re on table duty.”

Binner looked like he wanted to argue but definitely knew better and set about setting the table, leaving the plates on the counter since Jaden would have handed those over first if they were going to the table.

Patrick came back downstairs, now in a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt, and grabbed a wine glass from the cabinet.

“Which bottle?” he asked, gesturing to the wine rack.

“Don’t ask him.” Pear rolled his eyes, moving over to the rack and browsing the selections, sighing heavily and giving Jaden a judgemental look before pulling the bottle that offended his winey sensibilities least.

“Don’t blame me,” Jaden replied to the look, “Schenner bought most of those. I’m not really a wine person.”

Perron gave him a pitying look, “Still so young. I still have so much to teach you.”

“Oh, my God.” Jaden rolled his eyes.

“I can’t believe Steener let you down. I knew I shouldn’t have let him win.”

“Please stop talking and pick a wine.”

Pear went to reply but Petro stepped in, giving him the amused-but-trying-to-be-responsible look he used whenever he had to carole his team. Patrick ended up grabbing a bottle with a label he recognized and poured a glass, handing it to Jaden and pulling him back against his chest. Jaden’s eyes flicked to the stairs.

“What did I tell you?” he directed toward them.

“I’m hungry.” Dunner whined, “And Sammy won’t let me win Mario Kart.”

“I will bring you up your pizza when it gets here.” 

“Fine.” Dunner groaned, dragging the word out because, “Can Colton come over?”

“I’m not letting Robby come over, why would I let Colton?”

“I was just asking.”

“Go back into your room and try not to puke on anything.”

“I’m not pukey.”

“Yet.”

Jaden rolled his eyes, fond exasperation flooding his face as he turned to Petro, “When did I become the responsible one?”

“You’re all grown up, Schwartzy.” Petro grinned in return, expression proud.

“Ugh!” Jaden scoffed in response, pulling away from Patrick and circling around his kitchen island, pulling open a drawer and the salad tongs as the doorbell rang, “Petro.”

“I got it.”

“You need to sign for it, I hope you got it.”

Alex just laughed and walked toward the door, talking to the delivery person politely as he signed and smiled for a selfie before lugging the food in.

“How much did you order?” Petro asked.

“Are you seriously asking that question? It needs to feed eleven hockey players.”

“More than that with you and the Terror Twins upstairs.”

Petro set everything out on the counter, turning to the group, “We have Imos pizza, toasted ravioli, and salad. Help yourselves.”

“Wait.” Jaden stepped over them and opened the boxes until he found the second vegan pizza (and O’Ry better eat all of the first one), “The Terror Twins’ dinner. No offense, O’Ry.” 

Ryan laughed brightly, grabbing a plate and pulling half of the other vegan pizza onto it and Schwartzy headed upstairs.

“This isn’t pizza!” Sammy’s offended voice drifted down the stairs.

“Well, it’s Punishment Pizza then!” Dunner responded to whatever Jaden had said.

Jaden shook his head fondly as he walked back down the stairs, yelling over his shoulder, “And leave Robby alone! He’s probably curled up in Matty’s lap right now, oblivious to everything.”

“Nah,” David shook his head, “Both the Atlantic and Pacific teams are over at Walt’s. He’s got Brady there, as well, so Matty’s probably pouting.”

“And Marner.” Jaden added, gesturing for everyone to help themselves, “Who do think Robby picked up those moves from?”

Petro laughed and nodded, there were definite similarities in the way Robby and Marner played - and Robby was only twenty, which Petro didn’t like to focus on, it made him feel old. Hell, seeing the player and person Jaden had become made him feel old and there was only a three year age difference between them.

He glanced over at Jaden again and started laughing more. He had the look on his face that was associated with only Robby. This Proud Mother Hen look that would definitely get him punched if he said it out loud. Robby was the baby of the team, even the rookie Kyrou was older than him, but he was Jaden’s Rookie still. Kid could get away with anything, much like Jaden can still get away with anything with Steener.

“God, you’re such a mom.” Binner snorted, narrowly avoiding the punch aimed at his shoulder and high-tailing it to the seat at the table furthest away from Jaden.

“Jaden,” Petro smiled fondly, shaking his head and Pear and O’Ry tried not show their amusement. 

Jaden’s eyes just narrowed at Binner before he grabbed his glass and started toward the stairs, “Have fun. Be nice. Pear, please don’t punch my boyfriend.”

“I will try not to, but his face is very punchable.” David grinned as Patrick scowled.

“Schwartzy,” Petro gestured to the food.

“I’m not hungry right now,” Jaden replied, “I’ll get something later. Besides, this is for you guys to bond and I have to make sure the Terror Twins aren’t trashing my guest room.”

Petro bit back his worry, knowing that Jaden wasn’t going to settle until he knew that Dunner and Sammy were okay, probably not until they were sleeping...or passed out.

“Get off me.” he barely heard through the closed door upstairs and he huffed out a laugh.

And if he O’Ry snuck upstairs a half hour later and snapped a photo of Schwartzy with Dunner and Sammy curled up around him, he didn’t need to know… until it showed up in the group chat and he gave O’Ry the silent treatment for a good day and half.

4.

Sanny was in charge of picking Eddy up from his hotel and getting him to the restaurant. Most of the guys were going to be there and Eddy was excited to see them. When they entered the private room, cheers erupted and hugs were shared.

“What’s up, Momma?” Eddy grinned widely when he reached Jaden.

“Hello, Problem Child.” Jaden replied with a fond smile. Eddy was always the only one allowed to call him that.

“Have you gotten shorter?” Joel asked as he hugged the older man.

“I will kick you in the shin. Hard.” Jaden replied.

Eddy laughed and pulled away before saying, “What’s this I hear about you being in love?”

“I’m gonna kill you, Dunner.” Jaden glared at the defenseman who smiled back innocently.

“You finally let Kane take you out and you didn’t tell me!?”

“It’s nothing. It’s not like we’re in an actual relationship. We haven’t had that talk yet.”

“Sure. Because you’ve totally been someone who does flings.”

Jade rolled his eyes and sat back down, Eddy taking the open seat between him and Colton - the seat Colton had saved for Eddy.

Dinner passed too quickly and Jaden insisted on giving him a ride back to the hotel. He pretended to ignore, for the time being, that Eddy definitely took his time saying goodbye to Colton - continuing to circle back to him until Binner all but dragged Colton out of the room since he had given the taller man a ride.

“Come on.” Jaden clapped Eddy on the shoulder at the sad look he tried to cover up as he watched the blond leave, “We’ll talk about this in the car.”

“Talk about what?” Eddy decided to play dumb. He could definitely pull that off with everyone he knew...almost everyone...except for this team.

Jaden just rolled his eyes and led the way to his car.

Rather than heading directly to the hotel, Jaden drove them to Forest Park and they headed to the benches along the Grand Basin. Eddy pulled his coat a little tighter around himself and took a deep breath. He had missed the St. Louis weather. And the weather ensured that there was no one around to overhear this conversation.

“You wanna talk about Colton?” Jaden asked as they sat down.

“You wanna talk about Kane?” Eddy fired back.

“At least I have something more than pining that I don’t want to talk about.” Jaden responded.

Joel sighed, shoulder’s relaxing, “I thought that distance would make this go away.”

“Like how you thought hooking up with anything on two legs would make it go away?”

“I thought this was the ‘no judgement zone’.”

“Does this look like my house?” Jaden replied with a smile, “Edds, have you even thought that, just maybe, you should talk to Colton about this? You’ve had these feelings for him for a long time.”

“And let him break my heart? No.” 

“He wouldn’t.”

“You don’t know that.”

“Maybe I do. Like how maybe I know that when Colton does hook-up, they only ever look enough like you that it’s obvious what he’s doing. Like how I have had a drunk, crying Colton on my couch because he thought there was no way in hell that you could ever return his feelings and - after the trade - that he lost his chance with you. And, from your drunk texts and voicemails, you still have those feelings for him.”

“Should you really be talking? I mean, your thing with Kane has been going on since before I made the team and you finally accepted that you felt something for him, like, a couple months ago.”

“My thing with Patrick is much more complicated that you being afraid to admit that you’re in love with Colton and have been for five years. And Colton feels the exact same way but you and I both know that he is not going to make the first move. So, the ball is in your court now. Figure out what you want to do with it.”

They sat there in silence for another several minutes before Eddy said, “He loves me?”

“Yeah, he does.”

Eddy bit his lip, “Sorry I brought up Kane. It wasn’t fair.”

“Yeah, it was. Ask anyone, I run away from feelings. Especially very real ones. I don’t want you making that mistake.”

“Can we head back to the hotel? I think I need to call Colton.”

“Sure, Edds.”

They headed back to the car and drove in silence. All too quickly, Jaden had stopped in front of the hotel.

“Thanks, momma,” Eddy pulled him into a tight hug, “for everything.”

“Anytime, Problem Child,” Jaden whispered, hugging Eddy tightly, “Let me know if you need anything, kid. No matter what time of day, or where you are, I have your back, yeah?”

“I will, Schwartzy.”

Jaden watched him get out of the car and walk into the hotel. Joel had grown up a lot since his rookie year and Jaden couldn’t help but feel proud of him.

When he got home, he got ready for bed and picked up his phone - smiling down at the texts from both Eddy and Colton thanking him - and hovered over Patrick’s contact. He pressed call before he could talk himself out of it.

“Hey,” Jaden’s voice was soft as he leaned back against the headboard, “how was your game?”

5.

The third of April was never a good day for Jaden. It was the anniversary of Mandi’s death and Jaden preferred to hide from the world if he could. Sometimes practice or games fell on the day depending on who the Playoffs were going and he was able to swallow it down and just long enough. But this year, with the suspension of the season, he didn’t have anything else to focus on. He had spent the day in his bed, his lights off, silence filling the space, and ignoring his phone - drifting in and out of sleep.

He didn’t hear the door open but wasn’t too surprised to hear Schenner’s voice. What did surprise him was that he heard the voices of his other teammates as well downstairs. He got out of bed, keeping his comforter wrapped around himself as he made his way to the top of the stairs.

“Jaden,” Vova greeted, smiling up at him, “come. Yana make the bread you like.”

“I accidentally made a couple pans of lasagna.” Petro added.

“My hand slipped and Dunner and I bought waaaaay too much booze.” Sammy grinned up at him.

“I came to ask you to call or at least text Kane because he started texting me and I want that to end right now.” Pear requested.

Brayden jogged up the stairs and pulled Jaden back into his bedroom, flipping the lights on and hugging him tightly, “No one had heard from you all day. Kane really is worried.”

“I’m fine.” Jaden said into Brayden’s chest.

“You’re not,” Brayden replied simply, “but we’ll get you there. Now, change, text Kane that you’ll call him tomorrow, and come downstairs. We have a ton of food, and booze, and games.”

Jaden huffed out a laugh but pulled back and went to grab a pair of sweatpants and his Yale t-shirt. He dug his phone out from under the sheets and went through his texts, responding to his family and Patrick, before heading downstairs.

He let Steener push him down onto the couch between Robby and Jordie, the two youngest on the team pulling him into the argument they had apparently been having all morning about which Pokemon was the best starter (Jaden kept to himself that he agreed with Robby that it was Squirtle because no one would believe that that was his actual opinion because it was no secret that Robby was his favorite, just like he was still Steener’s favorite) as Binner handed him a beer.

He wasn’t used to being taken care of, it never felt right, but he guessed...just this once...he would let it happen.


End file.
